In the business environment, controlling coffee and lunch breaks has primarily been performed by devices that sound a signal at the exact time that the coffee break or lunch break should begin and end. In most cases, these time recording or time clock devices are commercially available and would be programmed to sound signals throughout the day at specific designated times.
Many companies today are making use of the catering truck industry to provide their employees with beverages and food at the employer's location. These catering trucks seldom arrive at the customer's location at the same time each day. This could be due to traffic delays, longer stops at previous customer's locations or in some cases, they may arrive early. As an example, if a time clock were programmed to sound a signal at 9:00 AM and at 9:15 AM, denoting a 15 minute coffee break, and the coffee truck were to arrive at 8:55 AM, the employees' coffee break would be stretched to 20 minutes instead of 15 minutes. This could cost a company hundreds to thousands of dollars each year in non-productive time. If the coffee truck were late by 5 minutes, the time clock apparatus would sound the signal at 9:00 AM, the employees would stop working and wait for the truck to arrive, again wasting valuable productive time
Although these time clock apparatus work well for break or lunch times that are always the same every day, they cannot solve the problem when these times deviate or vary from day to day as is the case when catering truck services are used. One solution may be to use a timing alert device.
The prior art shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,871 describes a programmable timer that sounds a signal at the end of the timing cycle and then repeats the same timing cycle. This timer does not give a starting audible signal and must be manually activated. There are no provisions for remote activation.
The prior art shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,408 describes a pre-set interval timer that sounds an alarm at the end of the elapsed time period to remind users to take their medication. Again, no provisions are made for an audible signal at the start of the timing period nor can the timer be remotely activated.
The prior art shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,566 describes a timer used in a supervisory capacity with children in which the programmable time intervals are accumulative and where an audible signal is sounded at the end of the time cycle. The timer must be manually activated and no provisions are made for remote activation or audible signals at the beginning of the timer cycle.
The prior art shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,641,125 describes a meter beater timer which alerts the user when the parking meter time limit has elapsed so that more coins can be inserted into the meter. Again, the timer must be manually activated and no provisions are made for remote activation or audible signals at the beginning of the timer cycle.